


City Never Sleeps

by ThePeculiarMessenger



Category: Marvel, peter parker - Fandom, spider man - Fandom, spidey - Fandom, superheroes - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 17:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11764680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePeculiarMessenger/pseuds/ThePeculiarMessenger
Summary: Peter Parker thinks about his past and future. Would Uncle Ben be proud, or is this all for naught?





	City Never Sleeps

When Uncle Ben died, people told me it’d get easier. That life went on. That it would hurt less, after a few years. I believed them, but not for my own sake. I believed them because if I didn’t, I knew it would make them suffer to see what really went on inside me.  
I wanted to make the world a better place. Ever since I was little. Uncle Ben always took me seriously, even when I was way too little to understand what I was saying about saving the world and all. Uncle Ben would sit with me, under the city night sky, and tell me story after story of heroes. But not superheroes. He told me stories of heroes who were like me, back then. Everyday people. Saving the world, every little step at a time. Nothing huge. Nothing gigantic. They didn’t always make the news. They just did good things, even when they were afraid.  
I still wondered what Uncle Ben would think of me now. Now that I had powers. Maybe he’d be proud of me. Maybe he’d think I was doing my best, and that I was helping people. Maybe he’d think I wasn’t just some foolish kid trying to save the world. Maybe he’d see me as a kid who was helping people, like the stories he used to tell me,  
I didn’t know.  
Sitting on the rooftop of a towering building, watching the city blur and hustle below, I could almost hear Uncle Ben’s voice. He sounded proud, sounded delighted, as he told me those stories. But I was alone up here. The city sky was black, and the stars hid from the city lights that glimmered in the darkness. The sounds from the city filled my ears like music. The cars, the voices, and the smells, all fading and jumping around. I guess it was true the city never slept. I wondered why- didn’t these people have families to go home to?  
I did. And yet, here I was. Watching the city live and idle into the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t blame them, then. We were all running. All running a race, a race that could leave us behind.  
That’s all I was doing, wasn’t it? Running. But couldn’t you save other lives by running from your own?  
A cool breeze ruffled my hair, and I pulled my legs in, Indian style. I fingered my suit that I wore, underneath my jacket, and wondered. It was almost funny how much a person could change by just what they wore. Give a man a mask, and he’s free to do whatever he wishes. Give a man a mask, and he can face his fears.  
I had changed, so much, and sometimes I scared myself. A lot of times. But every time I thought of giving up, of listening to all the voices around me that told me to just stop, to just be a kid: I remembered Uncle Ben’s stories. I remembered why I was here. Why we were all here. It wasn’t to just spend our lives roaming the streets in the darkness. It was to fight for the light to come back. And maybe, a kid like me, superpowers or none, could do something.  
You never knew.  
I smiled, slipping my mask on, and jumped off the building.  
-ARW. copyright 2017 all rights reserved. I do not own Marvel or any characters of Marvel.


End file.
